Lord of the ring; what does the ring represent? Introduction First of all, im a big lord of the ring fan, and since ive read these books several times and watched the movies, its not hard to understand that I have been starting to think about different themes in the book, and if there are some symbolism. My term paper will be based on my own subjective opinion regarding the subject of whether or not the ring of power in the modern classic “The lord of the ring”, written by J. R. R Tolkien repsesents something special or if its just a matter of spicing up the story. One Ring to Rule Them All. One Ring to Find Them.

One Ring to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them. Body Lord sauron, the thrilogies evil antagonist originally forged the ring of power. In the flames of mount doom he created a tool wich enforced his powers, made him unstopable, until Isildur, the king of Gondor managed to bring sauron down. He had a chance to destroy the ring, right there and then, but the ring choose for him, possesed him, made him do otherwise, and the ring lived on. The thrilogy takes place decades after Sauron ones lost the ring. But since the ring lived on, Sauron did too, and therefor the ring must be destroyd.

The person who is appointed this quest of being the ringbearer, and going to Mordor, is no other than the little hobbit Frodo. Throughout the 1000 pages long novel, you get to follow Frodos journy to the lands of Mordor, and ultimately his struggle with letting the ring go. The rings effect on people plays out differently depending on who it? s effecting. For example Galadriel, the elfish queen, can hardly resist the temptetion of power and destruction, meanwhile Frodo carrys it for a long time seemingly uneffected. I? d like to do a paralell between The ring of evil and drugs in modern society.

Theres no one who claims that drugs, whether it? s alcohol or if its cocain is good for you, but they do achieve to claim victims. They change personalities, and most of all they let people think that they need them. The ring does one thing to all of its victims. It graduatly lures them to believe that it will help them, that it will give them something that they dont already have. It decieves them all to believe it? ll give them power and riches, but theirs only one with the power to control the ring. In terms of metaphores you could say that the ring represents todays drugtraid, that sauron epresents the dealers, the drug lords, the ones who gain from the illegal market. And ofcourse everyone affected by the ring represents the buyers, the ones who get in harms way. Now Tolkien probably never drew the paralell to drugs, thats just me, but i do think that the ring even in his eyes represent something more than what it is in the book. In “The fellowship of the ring” theres a part were Boromir (one of the nine in “the fellowship of the ring”) tries to take the ring from frodo by force but in his weakest moment he realizes what he? s done and ends up dying like a hero, trying to save Merry and Pippin from the

Urukai. This tendency to make people act like they normally wouldnt is a quality of the ring. Its power over peoples will is the source to the mystery of its powers, because even if its said early on that the one ring is made in perpose.. to rule middle earth, and all of its people, even if it is the ring to rule them all, it has no more direct power to the average man than to make him invisible. This creates an effect, it? s not clear what the ring really does that everyone has to beware of, but every character in the novel who gets in contact with the ring graduatly changes atitude towards it.

They all give in to the temptation sooner or later. In this aspect the ring could represent mankinds constant desire for power and self- realisation. This universal temptation of feeding, buying the nicest clothes and going to the best restaurants. We are tempted to what we dont have and what we think we need, and thats exactly how the ring sometimes is described. It is something new, something more. A deceptive but tempting desire that eventually controls the person, and i do believe that alot of people are controlled by their need of acceptance, power, things and money.

Deception In many ways “The lord of the Ring” is a reflection of deception and lies as a part of human nature, for example when Smeagol (aka. Gollum) promises to help Frodo to find mordor he seem helpful and honest, but he eventually betrays Frodo to get a hold of the ring. Other examples are as i allready have said Boromirs betrayal, and men in generall are portaid weak and decievful. Conclusion The darkness of the Ring, the evilness, is probably of our own dark sides. Tolkien wrote this book not long after the world war 2 and this might just be a sort of reflection over that.

But the seducive powers of the ring is more a quality of drugs or other addictive substances. A third aspect is that the ring represents mans weaknesses and temptaions. Our constant need for more, for better things and a better status. The ring is a symbol of evil, deception and adiction. All things we as humans have and need to control. Tolkiens masterpiece has without doubt touched and moved many people, but i think that subcouncously this book effect is larger than we think, theirs a message to learn from in it, and i think that even if we dont know it, we all understand this, and learn from it.

Author: Brandon Johnson

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